Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a fine PM and played a big role in reversing the damages done by 50 years of Congress rule before him. Indian economy was just recovering from the effects of dot-com bubble and east Asian crisis, when his term came to an end. Everything seemed great and Vikas(Development) was on the mind of entire BJP. They were so mesmerized by this Vikas, that they named it “India Shining” ignoring the groundwork important before making any such tall claims.

But how did the entire BJP machinery got deluded by this idea? Well, the media played a great role in selling this story to BJP that they were doing great. The media sold the myth of NDA doing exceptionally well on the ground giving confidence to Pramod Mahajan who suggested ABV to pre-pone the elections and dissolve Lok Sabha. The mantra of Vikas was sold so well that there was near unanimity among opinion polls about NDA’s win. But the end result was that NDA was mauled badly in the 2004 general elections.a1Source: CSDS, Fallibility of opinion polls

What were the core reasons for this promotion of Vikas mantra i.e. “India Shining” by the media?

1) Create the image of India doing well economically, but at the same time selling it as growth of big industries at the cost of poor.

2) Confuse BJP about its core voters i.e. Hinduvtavadis and make it chase the mirage of development supporting voters.

While the importance of voters who stand by Vikas-Vikas cannot be rejected completely, but most of them are anyway fence sitters and do not have enough skin in the game to go and campaign for BJP. It is only the core supporters who would go from door to door and convince other voters to vote for BJP. And who exactly are these core supporters for BJP? They are die hard nationalists and Hindutvawadis, who can smell the treachery of anti-Hindu Congress cabal from miles away.

Sadly once BJP comes to power, it allows media to sell it snake oil on futility of these core Hindutvawadi supporters. It happened in 2004 when BJP had more or less given up on the core Hindu agenda and did not pursue cases against the Italian waitress Sonia Gandhi and let Quattrochi flee in Bofors case nor deliver on other core Hindu demands. The end result of all this backstabbing was that core Hindu supporters did not go out in droves to campaign for BJP in the final election and the results of 2004 were an eye opener for the whole party. But it seems the party did not learn anything from its past mistakes.

So, now comes the real question for 2019- is media deluding Modi for 2019 elections the way it deluded ABV in 2004? BJP under Modi govt does not have a great record on pro-Hindu demands. Actually, it has given a cold shoulder to most of the prominent Hindu demands like temple control and repealing RTE. To make matters worse, now BJP govt in Gujarat is planning to inaugurate Sharia Banking. Is this the Hindu icon Indians elected in 2014?

The latest poll from ABP News should be seen under this light, which is shown in the above figure. Modi government has hardly delivered on any pro-Hindu agenda. Modi is being deluded to think that he can rule for 20 years without making a dent in the Lutyens cabal. And how is this done? This is done in front of everyone’s eyes by selling the agenda that people are very happy with Modi. Well, yes people are happy to get rid of the corrupt mafia family and Congoons, but development alone will not salvage this country- specially if development means further curtailment of Hindu rights and freedom. The results in Bihar should be an eye-opener for BJP.

If Modi keeps believing in the rosy picture that the media is trying to plant, then there would be no reason for Modi government to change its stance on any issue. They will keep backstabbing Hindus thinking that Vikas i.e. development is what all Hindus want. Sadly the core supporters do not believe in this bania ideology and will not sell their interests for some development. The cultural hegemony of Hindus in India has to be preserved and if Modi does not deliver on it there will be consequences.

There is no point in being a party pooper, but these media stories are well crafted to delude Modi govt. The Hindutvawadis are definitely not happy with the stand of Modi govt on core Hindu issues and they will not be as passionate and dedicated to ensure his landslide victory as they were in 2014. Their loss can wreak havoc on BJP’s final results. The current Lutyens media has all the incentives to plant such rosy stories and further estrange core Hindus from BJP. “India Shining” failed and “Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas” will also fail if core voters are made unhappy. Now the only question is- whether Modi will listen to his core supporters who want him to deliver and win 2019 elections or the Lutyens mafia, who has every reason to ensure Modi’s defeat so that he cannot take action against them? So Modi well wishers should stop wasting their time on these kinds of media engineered polls which are specifically designed to destroy Modi from within.